Need Advise!! Switched food and hens refuse to eat!

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

I switched from grower crumbles to layer pellets and the ladies are flat REFUSING to eat it!

They've scooped out about two or three cups worth onto the ground from the feeder but don't appear to have eaten a single pellet. Is it just that they're not recognizing them as food or that they hate them so much they won't touch them??? Should I go find some layer crumbles and just give away/toss what I have??? Will they just get used to it? Help!

 

[nivtup]

Two schools of thought.

A:
If you mixed layer crumbles with pellets for a short time, they will not notice the change over.

B:
They will get hungry.

 

[chuckzoo]

Try mixing a little warm water in with the pellets to soften them slightly - mine love this. You could use less and less water until they become acustomed to the pellets. A word of caution don't mix too much at one time, you don't want a mash sitting for more than 12 hours.

Apparently chickens prefer crumbles over pellets

I would do what ever you need to to get them to eat, they don't need to be losing condition in the cold.

 

[NonnasBabies]

When they get hungry enough they will eat it!!

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

I'll try wetting the pellets first. We're completely out of their old food, so mixing is out... BRB!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

No chicken is going to starve itself to death.

When they toss them on the floor or the ground, they'll know where to come looking when they get hungry enough.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Another thing you can do is just grind up some of the pellets and mix them in with the regular pellets. Achieves the same thing. If you do mix in water with the pellets, be sure to remove any uneaten food after a couple of hours because wet feed can start to go mouldy. That's not good.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Quote:
Another thing you can do is just grind up some of the pellets and mix them in with the regular pellets. Achieves the same thing. If you do mix in water with the pellets, be sure to remove any uneaten food after a couple of hours because wet feed can start to go mouldy. That's not good.

Ok, they seem to be eating the wet pellets a bit. I'll try grinding up some later on this afternoon. Here's hoping they get a taste for them though...

 

[EweSheep]

Well as for my girls, I've never had the snootiest hens and pullets ever.......I've made the mistake of getting pellets instead of crumbles and figured, oh they will eat it. For a week, it sat there untouched. Just flat out refused to eat it. They lost weight and egg production went down.

Well, I finally gave up and decided to get some crumbles. Once the crumbles were replaced, they all ate it greedily, (its a wonder they didn't colicked!) and egg production went back to 100% within a week.

Pellets are not good for chicks tho so it would not benefit me. The texture and eating pellets, well, its different for them even its the same thing but processed or formed differently.

Wetting the pellets is a good idea if you need to use that bag if the feed store won't accept them.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Well, they're eating it now. Grudgingly. But they're still eating. I'll change to back to crumbles on the next bag. Thank you for all the advise!